2026 has been Slayyyter's breakout year. The St. Louis pop star released WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA her third studio album, and first for Columbia, which we dubbed the best album of the year so far. It's thrilling hedonistic pop, where the red rhinestones and fresh blood complement each other, that reminisces about the lost iPod era. Her stardom continues to expand, as does the album's own hellish universe.
Slayyyter is scheduled to perform at Lollapalooza this afternoon, but has been upgraded to one of the main stages, the Bud Light Stage. This reminds me of a couple years back when the same thing happened to Chappell Roan while she was also in the middle of her pop ascent. In addition to that, Slayyyter shared a new single "brand new chanel$." It's the sister track to WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA's “BEAT UP CHANEL$," and it flips the original's perspective and sound.
The song still centers on heartache, the cheating loser who fucked a girl in their shared space. But whereas on the original she sings about a superficial but tangible escape from heartache ("I want nasty afterparties, banged up at the motel/ I want beat-up Chanels, I want somethin' for real"), she calls out her ex whom she discovered had been cheating in the two days before her breakout album was released. "At those nasty little afterparties, stuck in the scene/ He want brand-new Chanels," she flips one lyric, referring to the bright and shiny new love interest. Yup! What a fucking scumbag.
Sonically, "brand new chanel$" is on the softer side. Slayyyter's voice isn't armored with any angular Auto-Tune. Instead, she sounds reflective and free. Even though there's a pivot away from vodka bottle hardness, the track still builds. Thin, urgent guitar strums are joined by a thumping drums before exploding into jubilant dance-pop. Paradoxically, she repeats during the chorus how she's stuck in the aftermath of betrayal, digesting it all: "Oh, I'm here standing still."
In the self-directed video, Slayyyter revisits some of the same locations featured in "BEAT UP CHANEL$." But the vibes are all different. Instead of shooting a designer handbag, she's aiming at a silhouette target; instead of backyard partying with a tribe of skater friends in white T-shirts, she's dressed in mourning attire with black clothing drying on a clothesline behind her. Then there's the scene that recreates the album's cover art, but instead of reading WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA, the trucker hat is emblazoned "WOR$T MAN IN AMERICA." Maybe this inverse title is the name of the companion album she's been teasing.
I simply cannot wait for what else Slayyyter has lined up. Watch the video below.
